Interestingly, this is mostly an American (and a also a Western) problem. In most of the world (South America, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, etc), "on time" ranges anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. We grade our personal productivity level much more than other cultures. Other cultures value other things such as community and relationships at a higher level than we do. A story: I was invited to an Indian…
I don't know, most eastern european cultures value being punctual and consider being late rude and obnoxious. This was definitely the case during the Soviet era, and that culture didn't value personal productivity nearly as much as the americans do.
Being Indian, I have to take a little offense at the generalization. It isn't all of us. I'm never casually late for an appointment, and am always annoyed if the other party is, beyond the reasonable 10 minutes. And this is not because of any incipient effect of Western culture. Please stop with the generalizing about pan-cultural differences in the perceived value of productivity, community, etc. Neither does an ane…
I didn't mean to offend. I've worked with Indians who were punctual. In fact, I don't recall ever working with one who was not. I think parties are bit different, though. My point was to compare cultures, not to put down one or the other.
Thanks, I'm only saying that individual variations dominate any cultural tendency, the evidence for which is tenuous and as this thread demonstrates, anecdotal.
No, really. I'm running late. My friends understand that we know are being a pain in the ass, but we just can't get it together. It is rude and selfish, but more than that, it's just because we can't get our act together in time. It's called "kids", man. Get over it.
I get how kids can mess up most schedules, but honestly that is your problem, not mine.
I also find doctors to be late in perpetuity, ive never in my life waited less than 10 minutes PAST the actual appointment time. This is both an easily identifiable problem and easy to fix, the receptionists could easily structure appointments more appropriately.
This is a byproduct of their time generally being worth so much more than yours. You would not complain if you had to visibly pay for any time a doctor is waiting with no patients. As for structuring appointments more appropriately, it's quite easy to think of reasons an appointment could take more time than anticipated, and if you had to buffer for that time, you would have to pay for the buffer.
No, you don't have to pay for the buffer time, or at least, yes, ok, you do have to pay for the buffer time, but the hourly rate of 'buffer time' will only be a percentage of what you pay for actual 'visit time'. The percentage that you pay for buffer time should be a reflection of the probability that the doctor will be busy for that buffer time. I would expect that buffer time would be billable at about 30% of visit time, because on avergae a doctor will be busy for the buffer time about two thirds of the time. Obviously that number is just a guess, but it should certainly be under 50%, if I believe my experiences in doctors' waiting rooms..
Interestingly, this is mostly an American (and a also a Western) problem. In most of the world (South America, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, etc), "on time" ranges anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. We grade our personal productivity level much more than other cultures. Other cultures value other things such as community and relationships at a higher level than we do. A story: I was invited to an Indian…
Don't compare "East Asians" disfavorably to American punctuality within earshot of a Japanese salaryman. The line beginning with "other cultures" is untestable horsepuckey reminiscent of the absolute worst tripe in American multicultural studies. And I have a degree in that. It survives only because it flatters the preconceptions of an Ameican subculture in academia who prefers to have a ready critique of Western cul…
Geez, everything is a liberal conspiracy to some people.
If you don't believe there are differences in punctuality between cultures then you just haven't experienced those cultures.
Don't compare "East Asians" disfavorably to American punctuality within earshot of a Japanese salaryman. The line beginning with "other cultures" is untestable horsepuckey reminiscent of the absolute worst tripe in American multicultural studies. And I have a degree in that. It survives only because it flatters the preconceptions of an Ameican subculture in academia who prefers to have a ready critique of Western cul…
Geez, everything is a liberal conspiracy to some people. If you don't believe there are differences in punctuality between cultures then you just haven't experienced those cultures.
The line I called out was about "valuing relationships", which is both viscerally offensive to me and has no defensibly true meaning. It is like saying whites love their kids more than blacks do. It is too poorly constructed to even be wrong.
Geez, everything is a liberal conspiracy to some people. If you don't believe there are differences in punctuality between cultures then you just haven't experienced those cultures.
The line I called out was about "valuing relationships", which is both viscerally offensive to me and has no defensibly true meaning. It is like saying whites love their kids more than blacks do. It is too poorly constructed to even be wrong.
Fair enough, upon further reflection I agree that line is a meaningless offensive generality.
I still don't get the non sequitur attack on academia.
This post is “very Sydney” as they say there. I lived there for 5 years and deliberate lateness was very much a part of the culture – a social signal that your time was more important than someone else’s. I fondly remember a quarterly kickoff meeting where my boss ripped one of the more pretentious reps a new one as she sidled in 30 minutes late. It didn’t happen again. Having said that - finding parking, catching pu…
Off-topic, but what do you think makes public transport in Sydney so bad? You're suggesting that it's so bad that it creates a kind of built-in lateness for most events?